Summer Storms
by Depudor
Summary: Sometimes you have to love someone enough to let them save your life. COMPLETE
1. The Floodgate

**Summer Storms**, Part 1 of 5

**Summary**: An accident at crew practice sends our gang on a hazardous journey into the woods in a rainstorm, where a wrong turn becomes a life and death situation for Jake and Hamilton.

**Rating**: PG-13. Not for the faint-hearted. If you're squeamish, I recommend skipping the chapter entitled "Blood and Rain."

**Disclaimer**: I don't own these characters but use them solely for the entertainment of my fellow residents of Denialville. _What do you mean, "Cancelled"?_

**Thanks**: To the Silver Oar Award voters and everyone who emailed me about this story and asked me to bring it back, especially Amanda, who got me to hurry up. And thanks most of all to Steve Antin for giving us the summer we would never forget.

**Author's notes**: This takes place after Episode 7 "Free Will," sort of an alternate season finale. So Scout and Will do not yet know that Jake's a girl, but Bella does. This was the first fanfic I ever posted, and remains my sentimental favorite, but it needed a serious rewrite before I could bring myself to republish it, and I added a couple scenes. (It's also the only fic I ever wrote that featured the entire cast of characters from YA.) These notes are already longer than my senior thesis, so I will just add that if you're not familiar with YA, please read my profile or the a/n for "Winter Wonderland." Now here it is, the new and improved "Summer Storms"...

_... Sometimes you have to love someone enough to let them save your life _...

* * *

As the eight rowers and their coxswain gathered on the dock under a few rays of morning sunlight filtering through thickening clouds, Hamilton tried not to look at Jake. This was nearly impossible, since she stood right in front of him when they lined up along the shell that rested in the water parallel to the dock. But looking at her made it impossible to think about anything but her, impossible to focus on the rowing he would be doing momentarily. Not that he cared about the rowing, but whenever he slacked off he was chastised by Finn, and when it got back to his father it meant a lecture on how he wasn't setting a good example of sportsmanship for the other students, as if Hamilton existed to be some kind of example. 

A cold gust of wind blew toward them across the lake, dispersing the last tendrils of fog that crept along the bank and sought shelter in the crevices between the jagged rocks along the shore. Hamilton saw Jake shiver, her navy blue sweatshirt failing to protect her from the dropping temperature, and he had to fight the urge to reach out and pull her to him, wrap his arms around her and warm her. Her eyes met his, and she smiled, as if she'd read his thoughts and was silently thanking him for that unrealized gesture.

The moment was broken by Finn, who strutted the length of the dock eyeing them like a drill sergeant.

"We're not doing a full run today, men, because as you can tell from the sky, there's a storm due to hit within a couple hours. Jake knows the lap I want you to do, and I'll see you back here in twenty minutes."

As Finn started to walk back up the dock, Ryder observed, "Twenty minutes isn't much of a practice."

"Maybe we should skip it altogether," Hamilton suggested.

In a low voice, Ryder sneered at him, "You won't have to worry about it much longer, sonny boy. Summer's almost over, and there's no way you'll make the varsity team."

"Can it, Ryder," said Finn, overhearing.

Hamilton rolled his eyes and said nothing. He stared straight ahead, not giving Ryder the satisfaction of seeing him react. But he could hear the other guys snickering.

One of them was a thick-necked rower named Biggs, who was Ryder's latest henchman. "Yeah, Ryder," Biggs chimed in. "Fleming doesn't _have_ to qualify for varsity. That's what _Daddy's_ for."

Unable to restrain herself, Jake called to him, "Hey, Biggs..." Hamilton shot her a look that said to stay out of it, but she ignored him and continued, "I wonder if _your_ daddy will be able to get you back on varsity after you get that F in Chemistry."

Biggs swiveled his wide head on his thick neck to gawk at Jake. "How the hell did you know about that?"

A tiny, involuntary smile curved Hamilton's lips as he raised his eyebrows at her, wondering if she had finally managed to hack into the transcripts database. She answered him with a proud grin and her fingers typing on an imaginary keyboard.

Finn diffused any further squabbling by ushering them into the shell, which rocked in the choppy water as they all settled onto their seats and grasped the oars. Scout and Will took the middle seats, forming a buffer between the combatants. Jake took her place facing Hamilton, who was silently grateful for the coming storm if it meant that this would all be over in twenty minutes and then he'd be in a hot shower and then have the rest of his Saturday to spend with Jake.

On Jake's command, oars lifted out of the water and sliced down into the gray waves, thrusting them out of their berth. As they carved a swath out into the lake, Hamilton saw something that made his stomach twist.

His mother, Kate, came walking toward the dock. Unfortunately, his teammates saw her, too.

Ryder spoke up first. "Oh, look, Munchie. There's Mommy, come to make kissy-wissy with Finn and make sure you get to stay on the team another week."

Hamilton gripped his oar so tightly the wood grain dug into his hands. If Ryder had been seated right behind him, the Brit would've got a big faceful of American elbow. But once again Hamilton found himself with no option but to swallow his pride. And he swallowed hard.

Jake had her back to the shore and couldn't understand what was going on until Ryder spoke up and Hamilton's face reddened. She couldn't do anything but yell, "Stroke!" even louder, hoping to drown out any further comments from the back row.

As Kate waved to the rowers, Hamilton rolled his eyes and grumbled, "There's nothing like getting up early on Saturday morning to be humiliated in front of your peers." He knew that Jake couldn't hear him over the ripping wind, but it didn't matter. In this particular humiliation, he was all alone.

* * *

Bella wasn't sure why she found herself wandering down to the river every morning that summer. She'd gone down there from time to time for years -- a quiet place to cool off and clear her head as she watched the ducks glide by. But part of her suspected it wasn't the ducks she was watching these days; a deep part of her knew she went to the river to see the Rawley crew team row by. She went to the river to see Scout, to see his strong arms tug at the oars. She would never admit it to herself, but that's why she'd been there every morning that week. 

But not this morning. This particularly chilly morning she pedaled quickly on her bike, the wind biting her face, whipping through her hair. She had to get there. She had to get there precisely because her father had told her not to go down to the river today. He had warned her that a huge storm was rolling in, and they'd said on the radio that they were releasing the dam on the river to prevent flooding upstream, and that meant that the river would be swelling. Bella was sure that they'd already warned the rowers, but just in case... It could be dangerous, and she had to make sure Scout -- and the others -- didn't go too far upstream.

* * *

Finn stood on the dock with Kate, discussing their plans for the fall curriculum. But they were talking around something, and they both knew it. 

He cocked his head toward the merger of the river and the lake, where the crew team had disappeared around the bend. "They won't be gone long," he told her, wanting her to go ahead and say what he knew she was inevitably going to say.

Kate looked out at the water, because she couldn't bring herself to look at Finn as she informed him, "I can't do this again."

"I'm not asking you to do anything."

"That's not what it sounded like from your poem."

Finn raised his eyebrows. "What poem?"

"Don't get coy with me, Finn. I know you wrote it."

"You do? You know because you don't have any other secret admirers, or you know because your husband couldn't possibly have written it?"

Kate turned away from him. "Leave Steven out of this."

"You're a romantic spirit, Kate. You need romance in your life. I'm just trying to feed someone who I can see is starving."

"You wrote that poem to be an appetizer, and it just left me feeling hungry."

"It's better than nothing."

She shook her head, laughed softly. "I must say, though, I was impressed that you gave me something original rather than borrowing from the Bard."

"It's not hard to be inspired when I'm thinking about you. About us." Finn put a hand on her shoulder and turned her around to face him. "You and I have something really special. You have nothing like that with your husband."

"I beg your pardon. Steven and I have something very special together. His name's Hamilton."

"So that's the only thing that's holding you here?"

"What do you want me to do, Finn, run away with you? If I leave, it'll be a scandal. I can't do that to Hamilton. It's been weird enough for him growing up in this place."

The first pale flash of far-off lightning backlit the clouds and turned the lake to a pool of mercury. Finn looked up at the opaque sky. "Go. It's gonna rain soon."

Kate looked up as well. "Should they be out in this?"

"They're tough boys. A little rain won't hurt them."

Kate nodded, unconvinced. The thought of her Munchie out in a storm didn't sit well with her. Without another word to Finn, she turned and walked away.

"He's a good kid," Finn called after her as she retreated.

She looked back at him.

"Hamilton," he explained. "Has a bit of an attitude, but he's a good kid."

"Yes." She paused. "I guess he takes after his father."

* * *

Jake tried not to look at Hamilton... Tried but failed miserably. It was all she could do to keep to her rhythm of shouting "Stroke!" knowing that the word had so many other connotations that she liked to associate with her secret boyfriend. She tried to focus her attention on the oars dipping into the water. She then tried looking past Hamilton, over his shoulder, but then she met a gaze from Will, and she felt he was looking at her strangely. Did he know? Could he tell that her mind wasn't in the game? Her eyes rested back on Hamilton. He pursed his lips seductively, and she was sure that if it weren't for the wind whistling in her ears she would hear him growling. She tried not to smile, but it erupted on her face. He smiled too and gazed at her, locking her in with those deep blue eyes that were like a vice grip on her soul. 

She gazed back.

She didn't see the sign posted on the shore.

WARNING: NEW RAWLEY DAM TO BE RELEASED SATURDAY, AUGUST 19. NO SWIMMING OR BOATING

She didn't notice as the boat jiggled slightly, and the water swirled underneath them.

* * *

Bella maneuvered her bike down the narrow path into the trees, which grew even narrower until she finally ditched the bike and walked. There was something eerie about the woods that morning, and it wasn't just the lack of sunlight; the birds were quiet, and even the ubiquitous mosquitoes seemed to have disappeared. But that trepidation only made her move faster. 

She knew the crew team's schedule well enough that she was fairly certain they would not yet have passed the patch of shore where the trail she followed met the river, if indeed the rowers had set out at all, which she prayed they hadn't. Her heart pounding from exertion and worry, Bella emerged from the woods and jogged down to the riverbank. She looked up at the sky, which had darkened quickly from an apathetic gray to a menacing charcoal. She scrambled up a rise in the bank, and in the distance she could see the long, narrow boat coming. It crept toward her like a stealthy insect, its eight long oars like spindly legs that rhythmically stroked the water and propelled its body smoothly against the current, as if nothing were amiss.

The sight would have brought her some relief had she not then turned to look upstream. Her stomach sank as she witnessed the full rush of the released water come barreling toward the rowers, churning the peaceful river into white water rapids.

"Oh, no!" she cried.

She was too late.

* * *

Jake sensed that something was wrong. The shell was rocking more than it should, and she could tell that the rowers weren't causing it. By an act of sheer will, she was able to pull her eyes from Hamilton's face and turn her attention back to their progress up the river. And that's when she noticed a posted sign. She tried to read it as they rowed past, but they were going too fast. 

"Whoa -- hold up, guys," she called out to her team.

They interrupted their stroke, and the boat slowed.

"Is this where Finn told you to stop?" asked Hamilton.

"I just want to read this -- Wait, what's that?" She saw a figure running toward them.

The others turned around to look. They saw a blonde girl waving her arms at them.

"Is that Bella?" Scout asked.

They were about to pass her. She called out, "Stop, you guys! The floodgate is open! The water's coming!" She pointed upstream.

With the combination of trying to read the sign and trying to hear what Bella was screaming, Jake was completely oblivious to what was churning toward them up ahead.

Suddenly the water rose beneath them, and the shell was thrust up several inches. Jake felt her stomach do a flip-flop.

Will was the first to say something. "What the hell —"

The narrow boat listed to one side, and now several shouts of "Hey!" came from the other rowers.

Ryder glared at the bewildered coxswain. "What's going on, Pratt?"

Jake looked up over the heads of the rowers before her and finally saw the waves tumbling downstream toward them. What they had just encountered was the surge before it.

For a moment she was too stunned to even react, but then she got her wits about her and realized that she was the one who had to get them out of this. "Whoa! Whoa!" Jake cried. "Turn around! Left oars down!"

Oars went in the water on her command. The shell spun in a quarter-circle, and they were now perpendicular to the crushing current. The water rushed up against the side of the boat, tipping it further and rendering it impossible to complete the turn. Jake knew the vessel wasn't designed to take that kind of pressure, and she knew that if they capsized, people could get trapped underneath. She took one final look at Hamilton. He was wide-eyed, wondering what the hell was going on, but waiting for her to call the shots.

"Abandon ship!" Jake shouted. "Everybody out! Get to the shore!"

END OF PART ONE


	2. Into the Woods

Title: Summer Storms, Part 2 of 5

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I don't own them. Why people who did own them and could broadcast them would give them up is completely beyond me.

Summary: An accident at crew practice leads our gang on a hazardous journey into the woods in a rainstorm, where a wrong turn becomes a life and death situation for Jake and Hamilton.

**Chapter 2: Into the Woods**

* * *

Scout, Will, and the other rowers obeyed Jake's command and scrambled to their feet. Stepping carefully, they managed to keep the boat in balance as they all jumped out between the oars and plunged into the raging water. With a deep breath, Jake leapt from her end of the shell and Hamilton followed right behind her. 

The water was freezing - and tasted like dead fish, which Jake discovered as she kicked to the surface and inadvertently swallowed a gulp as she gasped for breath. A wave crashed down on her and she went under again, kicking and beating against the turbulent water to climb her away back upward to air. Her lungs collapsing as the last of her breath burned away, she searched for a surface that was impossible to find amid tumbling waves. The thought crossed her mind that she might not make it to the surface again.

And then from somewhere in the nightmarish abyss a hand reached out to her, a strong hand that grasped her arm just below her shoulder and yanked her to the surface. She broke through and was finally able to open her mouth and gasp the sweet, sweet air.

"Jake!"

She heard Hamilton's voice before she could see him amidst the swirling water, finally spotting his wet head near her own, his eyes wide with worry. He let go of her arm so that she could swim, but he reached out to her again when she answered his call with a fit of coughing.

"Jake, are you OK?"

Fortunately, the water began to calm as the torrent passed on downstream, and Jake found that she could stay afloat now if she just kept kicking. She saw the other rowers holding their own against the rushing current as they headed for the shore.

"I'm fine," she answered finally. "I'm a total idiot, but I'm fine."

"What?"

"This is my fault, Hamilton."

"No, it's not, Jake. Don't say that."

Jake spotted the empty boat as it was tossed in the current and sucked on downstream. "Idiot," she chastised herself again. Hamilton reached out underneath the water and gently pulled on her sweatshirt.

"Come on," he said, starting to swim ashore before the current could carry them even farther away from where their teammates were converging on the bank. Jake swam after him, but Hamilton's strong arms plowed through the water much faster than she could follow. He stopped several yards ahead of her and waited for her to catch up.

The other boys all quickly covered the distance to the edge of the river, where it abruptly met a steep embankment. Scout was the first to scale the side and climb out.

Bella ran up to help him. "Scout! Are you OK?"

"Yeah, Bella," he replied as he stood dripping before her, catching his breath. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard about the dam. I came to warn you."

As the others crawled up onto the riverbank, Ryder stepped up to Bella and glared at her as he ran his hands over his head to squeeze the water from his blonde mop. "All you did was distract us so we didn't notice what was happening."

Bella was taken aback by this abrupt attack. "I was trying to help."

"Leave her alone, Ryder," Scout warned. Wringing out his crew jersey, Will walked over to back him up.

"Who is this little bird?" Ryder demanded, jutting a thumb at Bella.

"Nobody I would introduce _you_ to," replied Scout.

Ryder eyed Bella with a sly smile. "You're Gracie's sister, aren't you? Your baby sis is a _good_ girl."

Behind them, Hamilton and Jake finally reached the shore. As he climbed up on the bank, Hamilton turned and held out a hand to Jake, but she ignored it and lifted herself out. Hamilton started to shake off and wring out his shirt.

Jake put her hands on her head and realized that her carefully-gelled boy hair had melted into a wet mop. "Oh, God," she groaned.

"You lost your cap," Hamilton pointed out.

"That's the least of my problems." She ran her fingers over her hair and slicked it all straight back. "Does this look OK?"

"Yeah." Hamilton smiled. "You've got kind of a slimy little Italian gangster thing going on."

Jake rolled her eyes then shook her head. "I'm such a disaster. I can't believe I did this."

"Jake --"

"I wasn't paying attention! This is my job, Hamilton. To make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen."

Ryder overheard this and interjected, "Yeah, you're right. It _is_ your job, Pratt. Or _was_. Finn's not gonna be too happy that we lost a boat."

Jake and Hamilton ignored him and walked over to Will and Scout.

"Are you guys OK?" asked Jake.

"Yeah," Will replied.

"I'm really sorry about this. I didn't - "

"Jake, don't worry about it," Scout insisted. "I wouldn't have known what the hell to do."

"What exactly happened?" Hamilton asked.

"They opened the floodgate, or part of it," Bella explained, "Because there's a huge rainstorm flooding the towns upriver. And it's headed our way, which is why you guys should get out of here, before it starts pouring."

Scout laughed. "We're already soaked. What harm can a little rain do?"

But Bella wasn't laughing. "You obviously haven't been through a summer storm in New Rawley, Scout."

"Yeah, come on, mates," barked Ryder, assuming the lead. He turned back to Jake and added, "You're fired, _coxsuck_."

"Bite me, Draco," Jake retorted.

"Yeah, Ryder," said Hamilton. "Without a coxswain we don't have a crew team, and good luck finding another guy who weighs 115 pounds."

"How do you know how much he weighs, Fleming?" Ryder inquired. "Maybe had him on your back?"

Hamilton clenched his jaw and bellied up to Ryder. "Say that again," he challenged. The Brit was a good four inches taller than he was, but Hamilton made it very clear that he wasn't accepting snide comments from anyone.

Ryder started right back at him with a raised a fist, but Biggs grabbed him, and Will pulled Hamilton back.

Scout raised his hands between them and played mediator. "All right, guys, there's no cause for fisticuffs here. Let's just head back."

"That was quite a display of manliness, Fleming," Ryder sneered. "I'm sure your _girl_friend was impressed."

Bella looked at Jake and vice versa, not quite sure which one of them Ryder was talking about.

Before the posturing could escalate to a brawl, a distant crack of thunder rumbled overhead. Ryder's buddies motioned on down the river.

"Let's go, Ryder," said Biggs. "These losers already got us wet once today."

Ryder grinned with a delicious idea and then quickly shook his head back and forth like a wet dog, spraying Hamilton, Scout, and Will with the water from his hair. With a parting sneer, Ryder turned and trudged off with his posse along the riverbank.

Will turned to Hamilton and quipped, "You know what they say about guys who are really homophobic..."

This broke the tension a bit, and Hamilton and Jake both laughed.

Bella shook her head, watching Ryder walk away. "What an asshole."

The others nodded their agreement.

"Come on," said Jake. "We really should get out of here." She started to walk off in the same direction as Ryder and the others.

"No, not that way," Hamilton called after her. "The river twists all around. It'll take 'em over an hour to get home if they follow the river back." He pointed into the trees. "School's straight over that hill."

"You want to go through the woods?" Scout asked, less than thrilled.

"What are you so worried about, city boy?"

Jake raised her hand. "Well, here's one city boy who's not so keen on the whole nature tour thing."

"Come on, I grew up here," Hamilton insisted. "I know the way."

"I don't know," said Will, watching the others walk off into the gray mist. "Do you think it's a good idea to split up? Finn wouldn't like that."

"Personally, I think it's a great idea," Hamilton replied.

"Hamilton's right," Bella chimed in. "It'll take half as long if we go straight up, and that storm's rolling in pretty quick."

Scout looked at her. "Does that mean you're coming with us?"

"No, I -- Well, my bike's up there. I'll walk back with you that far."

* * *

Steven Fleming was so angry he could not sit down. He stood at his desk, looking out at the dark clouds rolling ominously over the campus, and yelled into the telephone, "If you decided to release the gate three hours ago, why am I just hearing about it now?" 

On the other end of the conversation, the director at the Department of Emergency Services stammered, "We -- It was broadcast on the radio and on --"

"I wasn't listening to the radio," Steven interrupted, losing his patience. "I've got a crew team on that river every morning. I'm supposed to get a call!"

He slammed down the phone and pondered his next move. He was in his office, but because it was Saturday, his assistant Maureen was not in. He walked out to her desk, searching for the Rolodex. Would it be faster to find Finn's cell phone number or head down to the river himself?

He looked at the clock, and it was after nine. The boys would have set out by now, because Finn knew the storm was coming and the practice had to be quick.

Steven grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair and slipped it on as he left his office. Yes, he'd known about the storm, but he couldn't have known about the dam. It hadn't been released in years, and the last time they'd had plenty of warning.

But there was no warning this time because no one had expected the flash floods in the towns up the river. Because no one had expected the storm to be that bad.

Steven took a deep breath and decided that today was not the day to get anyone at County Services fired. He made up his mind that it was nobody's fault, and that thought helped him to relax.

And it wasn't until he relaxed that he remembered that it wasn't just a crew team out on that river. It was his son.

And no one had expected the storm to be this bad.

* * *

Clouds completely obliterated the rising sun as Jake, Hamilton, Bella, Scout, and Will trekked up the hill through the woods. With the exception of Bella, they were all soaking wet, and the trees did little to protect them from the cold wind that rustled the thick branches overhead and sent shrieking birds flying off for calmer territory. 

"You guys must be freezing," said Bella. Hamilton and Jake nodded vigorously.

Scout walked close to Bella. "It was nice of you to come out here to warn us," he said.

"I wish it had helped."

"How'd you know exactly when we'd be out?"

"I've lived here all my life, Scout. I know what time the rowers come down the river."

"Oh, come on. The schedule must change from time to time. Have you been coming down here a lot lately?"

"Well... maybe lately more often than usual."

"Why?"

Bella just looked at him, and her look said, _You know why_.

"I know," Scout continued. "But I just wanted to hear you say it."

"I can't."

Jake and Hamilton overheard this and exchanged a look. Jake was curious about Scout and Bella, but a sign she saw posted on a tree ahead of them diverted her attention. From now on, she was paying great heed to posted signs.

"Hey, Fleming, are you sure we should be here?" she asked. "That sign says 'Private Property.'"

"We're fine," Hamilton insisted. "A half mile and we're on school grounds. I'm telling you, this is like my back yard."

"It's a pretty big back yard," Will commented.

Hamilton eyed the sign. "Weird, though. They never used to post signs around here."

They reached a small clearing where the path widened and split in two. Bella stopped and pointed to the diverging trail. "My bike's that way."

"I'll walk you there," said Scout.

"No, you guys need to get back. I'm sure people are wondering what happened to you."

"Well, that's what they get for not letting us take our cell phones on the boat."

Bella smiled at this but then turned serious. "Please, Scout. I've gotta go." She turned to the others and said, "Have a fun hike. I'm sorry if I made you lose your boat."

"Hey," Jake argued, "That was totally mea culpa."

Bella smiled at Jake as if they shared some private joke, which in a sense they did. She shook her head and just said, "Jake..." For a moment the girl and the boy who was actually a girl shared a look that no one else understood. Then Bella started off toward her bike as Scout stared forlornly after her.

Sensing the tension, Hamilton walked up to Scout and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, if you two need a minute of alone time, we can hang here and chill for a sec. I gotta pee."

Scout shook his head. "I don't know what else I can say."

"There's always a way, man," Hamilton insisted. "You just gotta follow your heart, as lame as that sounds."

"God, you're starting to sound just like Finn."

"Maybe he's right."

"No, there's more to it than that. We've got major obstacles."

Hamilton laughed softly. "Yeah, I wouldn't know anything about that."

Scout smiled at him, but then grew uncomfortable. Was Hamilton telling him something?

"Go for it," Hamilton urged, with no idea what he was in reality telling Scout to do.

Scout shook his head again. "No, she's right. We can't." He watched Bella weave her way up the other path. She couldn't help but glance back at him.

Hamilton shrugged and walked off into a thick cluster of trees. "I'll be right back," he called over his shoulder.

Jake looked at the sky, sure that she felt a drop of rain. "Crap," she said under her breath. She desperately wanted to take off her soggy sweatshirt and wring it out, but she knew that the corset strapping her breasts down would be too visible under a wet T-shirt. She turned to look in the direction Hamilton had walked off, hoping he was already on his way back and they could get a move on.

And then Jake noticed another 'No Trespassing' sign. This one also said, in very large letters, 'POACHERS WILL BE PROSECUTED.' A true creature of the city, Jake had to think back to the Steinbeck novel they'd read in Lit class in order to recall what a poacher was. _Hunters. People with guns_. Jake was really not digging this scene.

"Hamilton?" she called into the thicket.

His voice echoed back. "I'm coming."

She looked over at Will and Scout, who were quietly discussing something while kicking rocks into the trees. She crinkled her brow as she eyed the ground around her, then off the trail, toward the cluster of trees that Hamilton had wandered into. She spotted something strange - one of the trees had a chain attached to its trunk. Her eyes followed the chain to its other end, where it attached to something gray that she thought at first was a small pile of rocks. It was a good twenty feet away and partially obscured by leaves and twigs, so she slowly stepped a bit closer to get a better look.

It wasn't rock. It was metal, a large steel ring with a flat piece in the middle. As Jake edged towards it, she heard a few twigs snap in the thicket just behind it, and she jumped back.

Hamilton emerged from behind a tree, and she sighed with relief. But her relief quickly vanished when she realized that he was headed straight for that strange contraption...

"Hamilton, wait! Watch out!"

"What?" he called back. He didn't stop. Jake rushed toward him and managed to catch up to him just as his foot was coming down on it.

"Stop!" she yelled.

She threw herself at him and tried to push him out of the way, but it was too late -- he'd already sprung the trap. A crushing jaw ten inches wide, it leapt up off of the ground in a vicious bite, as if it were a live and hungry animal. Its rusty joints screeched and clanged as it snapped shut.

They both fell to the ground as it sprung. Hamilton landed safely out of reach -- but the jaw and its razor teeth had caught the middle of Jake's foot. She cried out in pain.

"Jake!" Hamilton screamed.

END OF PART TWO


	3. Blood and Rain

Title: Summer Storms, Part 3 of 6 (sorry, I think it will now be 6 instead of 5)

Chapter 3: Blood and Rain

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I don't own them. Why people who did own them and could broadcast them would give them up is completely beyond me.

Author's Notes: As you can tell by the title, this is the one I warned you about. It's not for the squeamish. The original version of this chapter was really long and somewhat uneven in terms of tone, so I've chopped off the end and moved it. Now I think it reads a lot better. Please let me know what you think.

* * *

As Jake propped herself up on her elbows, Hamilton knelt next to her. They both stared open-mouthed at her foot clenched by the trap. 

"Ohhh... _shit_," was all Hamilton could say.

For a moment Jake couldn't say anything at all. She just swallowed. Then she managed, "Yeah, that's basically what I was thinking."

Hamilton looked at her and she stared back at him silently, both of them struggling to think of what to do next. Scout and Will ran up.

"Hey, what happened?" Scout asked. "We --"

"Jesus!" Will interrupted.

"Ouch," Scout added, finally seeing what had Jake prostrate on the ground. "What is that, a trap?"

"Yeah," Hamilton replied, the word barely escaping his throat.

"Like for beavers or something?" Scout continued. Will elbowed him to indicate that this was not the important issue, so he switched topics to, "Jake, are you OK?"

Jake looked up at Scout and tried very hard to pretend that this was not the dumbest question she'd ever heard. "Well, it kinda hurts. I'm just glad I have shoes on. I feel sorry for the little barefoot animals who get caught in these things."

Hamilton moved closer to the trap to examine it. It gripped the middle of Jake's foot, and it pretty clearly sliced through her canvas sneaker. A dark ribbon of blood was just beginning to seep from where steel teeth gnashed through blue cloth.

Hamilton shook his head, frustrated and angry. "What the hell... They can't put traps this close to the school grounds!"

"Well, I'll be sure to leave them a nasty note," Jake quipped. But her sense of humor was wearing off along with the initial shock, and the excruciating pain was sinking in. It felt like her foot was being stabbed, crushed, and snapped in half all at the same time. She dug her fingers into the ground next to her and pulled at the grass as another scream boiled up in her throat but thankfully did not escape.

Hamilton tried to pry apart the steel jaws, but even in his strong hands they wouldn't budge. He let out a sigh and stated quietly, almost to himself, "It's a lock trap."

"What's that?" asked Jake.

"I saw one once, on a walk with my mom when I was little. There was a fox caught it in, just by his paw, and the thing was going crazy trying to pull itself out. My mom was so upset she started crying, and she went over to look at it, and I thought she was going to open the trap and let the fox go, but she said it was a lock trap – you need a key to open it."

Jake hadn't thought this could get any worse. She looked at the chain securing the trap to the tree. "So, does that mean I'm stuck here?"

"No," Hamilton replied, with a determined shake of his head. "It means I need some help." He looked up at Will and Scout and said, "Guys, come here."

As they knelt down next to him, Bella came running up.

"What happened?" she asked breathlessly. "I heard a scream." As Jake managed an embarrassed smile, Bella saw her foot in the trap. "Oh, my God..."

Jake shrugged. "It's not as bad as it looks." But she was already realizing that this was a lie.

"It looks pretty bad," Scout had to admit.

"Shut up, Scout," Hamilton snapped. "Just grab on." He gripped one jaw of the trap, and Scout and Will grabbed the other. "OK, guys. On the count of three, everybody pull." He looked at Jake and nodded silently to tell her to prepare herself. He waited for her to take a deep breath, and then he quickly counted, "One, two, _three_!"

Grunting with effort, the three boys pulled as hard as they could. A summer of toning their arms with rowing paid off in a big way, as biceps flexed and bulged and finally, with an ear-splitting screech of rusty steel joints, they opened the trap just enough to release its quarry.

"Aaah!" Jake cried out, biting at her lower lip and pounding a fist on the ground. She crawled backwards on her elbows, and once she was safely out of the way, the boys let go. The jaws snapped shut again, almost catching their fingers.

Jake bent her knee and grabbed her foot at the ankle as the pain throbbed up her leg. It was even worse now then when her foot was still in the trap. She tried desperately to maintain her composure and take it like a man, or how she imagined a man would take it.

Hamilton could tell what she was doing and it made him feel sick to his stomach, but they both knew that she could take the pain longer than he could take the agony of not being able to wrap his arms around her and comfort her.

"Dammit!" Jake yelled. She squeezed her eyes shut and focused. _Pull it together, Pratt_, she urged herself silently. She opened her eyes and said to the guys, "You know, this is the kind of crap we don't have to deal with in Manhattan."

Hamilton almost smiled at that, but then he looked back at Jake's shoe -- dark navy blue could no longer disguise the seeping blood, which now crept up the white shoelaces, turning them bright red. He reached over and started to untie the laces, but Jake pulled her foot away and pushed back away from him.

"I got it, Fleming. My hands are fine." She untied the red-stained laces herself and carefully pulled the shoe off, her face contorting in agony as she did so. It was as if her flesh were being ripped apart all over again. The removal of her shoe revealed a white sock soaked through with blood, from her toes to her ankle, so much blood that it was hard to tell where it was all coming from.

"Damn," Will said. Scout whistled.

With great effort, Jake wiggled her toes. "I don't think it's broken," she lied. She slowly peeled off the bloody sock to reveal the nasty gouge that ran entirely across the top of her foot, splitting the flesh nearly to the bone.

Bella gasped, and Hamilton had to swallow to avoid doing the same. Scout turned away and retched, and Will grabbed him to steady him.

Eyebrows raised, Jake examined her foot. She felt lucky that the steel jaws had failed to cut through the rubber sole of her sneaker, so the bottom of her foot was fine. But the top... Blood rained from the wound onto the grass below, red droplets sliding down each green blade to pool on the ground.

Her heart throbbing from her stomach to her throat, Jake suppressed a moan. She had never seen so much blood, and she could only vaguely believe that it was coming from her own body. The fear even overwhelmed the throbbing pain.

"Oh... that's not good," was all she had to say. She didn't waste any more time looking but simply took her blood-soaked sock and wrapped it around her foot like a bandage, tying it tight to try to stem the crimson tide.

"I'll go get some help," said Bella.

"No, let's just get out of here," Jake replied.

Bella was adamant. "Jake, you're soaking wet, there's a storm coming in, and you're bleeding. I think we need to get some help."

Will shook his head at Bella. "They can't drive an ambulance in here. We're too deep in the woods." He pointed on down the trail. "If we can get over that hill, I think we'll be in the clearing. But Ham would know better than I would."

"How much farther is it?" Scout asked. They all looked at Hamilton.

He was silent, pale, kneeling next to Jake and looking back and forth from her foot to her face.

Will realized he wasn't hearing anything they said. "Hamilton?"

"Yeah?" he replied, not taking his eyes off of Jake.

"How much farther until we're out of the woods?"

Hamilton hesitated a moment, then looked up at Will and replied, "About a mile."

"A mile?!" Scout exclaimed. "Look at Jake's foot! He can't walk ten feet on that."

_He_. The word shook Jake now in a way it never had before. It was a simple pronoun, but the key to everything. An impetuous charade that had become necessary if she was to keep Hamilton. She had to be _he_ to have _him_.

But as she felt her very life force draining out of her, her veins releasing like the floodgate on the river, she doubted her ability to keep pretending even more than she doubted her ability to stand. Even on her best day, the charade took so much energy it often left her tired and tense.

She looked up at Will and Scout, two boys looking back at the imposter among them, and she wondered what they would do if they knew the truth. They were her friends, but could she trust them to hold on to her secret? Scout came from a political family; he couldn't afford to be involved in anything scandalous. And Will... Will was on scholarship; this was his one shot at a brighter future. If he got kicked out, he couldn't just move on to the next prep school the way the rest of them could. No -- both Scout and Will had too much at stake to become players in her game. And that meant she had no choice but to keep going or else risk losing the one thing that mattered to her.

She turned her gaze from Will and Scout to Hamilton kneeling beside her, his scared blue eyes never leaving her face. In his eyes she saw the possibility that she could find the strength to do this, that she could make it out of the woods, both literally and figuratively.

"I'll be fine," Jake finally replied to Scout, keeping her voice deep even as she struggled to get the words out. "Let's get out of here." She looked at Hamilton and nodded.

He slowly stood up, holding out his hand. She took it, and he pulled her up onto her good foot. Once she had her balance, she let go of his hand and tried to step down on her other foot but grimaced and stopped.

"You can't walk on that," Hamilton insisted.

"I can walk." She took a step forward on her bad foot, but the pain was unbearable, and she almost toppled over.

"Jake, don't!"

"Hamilton..." The tone of her voice warned him to back off.

Will stepped over and offered his shoulder. "Here, we'll give you hand."

"I don't need any help."

Bella had been watching all of this silently, but she couldn't hold back anymore. "Jake, stop being such a guy! Let them help you."

Jake wasn't in the mood for irony, but she understood what Bella was saying. They needed to get the hell out of the woods.

"Yeah, man, don't be an idiot," said Will. "We gotta move, like, now."

Sighing her acquiescence, Jake put a hand on Will's shoulder and a hand on Hamilton's and tried to hop along between them.

Overhead, a flash of lightning sprinted across the sky. It was followed quickly by another peal of thunder that rumbled into a crescendo like a giant revving engine. Jake shuddered.

They hadn't walked more than a few yards when the rain began to fall.

* * *

Finn felt the first drops pelt his head as he motored up the river in his speedboat. He spotted Ryder and Biggs jogging along the bank and three others not far behind. He pulled up beside them and cut the motor. 

"What happened?"

"We had to abandon ship," Ryder explained.

"Is everybody OK?"

"Yeah."

"I just got word about the floodgate," Finn explained, "and I know the Dean is seriously pissed that we weren't warned earlier."

"We would've been fine if our moron coxswain had been paying attention instead of playing X-ray vision with his boyfriend."

"Ryder, this really isn't the time for --" Finn stopped as he realized that the coxswain in question was nowhere in sight. "Where are the rest of the guys?"

"They didn't follow us," said Ryder. "I guess they thought they knew a shortcut, probably Fleming's idea. Finn, did that pup actually make this team?"

"It's the summer team, Ryder. Everyone makes it. Even you. Now shut up and get in the boat."

* * *

Fortunately, the first sheets of rain that fell weren't too heavy, and the forest did provide some cover. They moved as quickly as they could, Jake limping along between Hamilton and Will. There was no longer any kind of trail, so they counted on Hamilton to navigate them through the trees. Scout and Bella followed silently behind; everyone was too cold or too worried to carry on a conversation. Bella had abandoned her bike to stay with them, figuring that Jake could use someone there who knew her secret and wasn't completely shaken like Hamilton. 

After half an hour Jake was exhausted from hopping uphill on one foot, and they were nowhere near the top of the climb. Their progress slowed as the hill got steeper and the wet ground grew more slippery. While the tall trees did protect them somewhat from the rain, the whipping wind made sure they still got wet and cold, and Hamilton watched Jake with growing concern. The color was slowly draining from her face.

Without warning, she suddenly loosened her grip on the shoulders supporting her and sagged between them. Hamilton slid an arm around her waist before she could fall.

"Jake, what's the matter?" he asked, trying to sound calm.

"I'm... just a little dizzy." She put a hand on her head and closed her eyes. "You know, I could sit down for a minute."

"We can't," said Will. "Bad idea."

Hamilton concurred. "Jake, we need to get you to a hospital."

Jake pulled away from Will and then from Hamilton, who tried to keep a hand on her arm. She struggled to keep her balance on her own, but she stumbled sideways. Hamilton winced when he saw her put her weight down on her bloody foot, but she barely seemed to register any pain.

"I just need... for a minute..." she mumbled. She leaned against a tree trunk and sank to the ground.

"Jake!" Hamilton cried, finding it impossible to keep the emotion out of his voice, no matter how it might look to Will and Scout. He knelt in front of her and looked down at the sock bandage, which was soaked completely bright red with blood.

"Oh, God," Bella said. "We should change that bandage."

Jake stretched her foot out in front of her and stared at it, then almost laughed. "Wow, that's a lot of blood, isn't it?" She looked up at Hamilton. Her hazel eyes now looked almost black against the pale of her skin, or maybe, Hamilton thought, it was that her pupils had grown so wide. He didn't know what that meant, but it scared the hell out of him. He was losing it, and he wasn't doing a very good job of hiding that fact from Jake.

"Hey, Ham, don't freak on me," she said, her voice barely audible above the wind and rain, even here in the shelter of a gargantuan pine tree.

Hamilton tried to ignore this comment as he started to remove the sock bandage. This time Jake didn't resist but let him do it. When Hamilton saw the gouge in her foot, his stomach sank. The wound was still bleeding profusely.

"You need another bandage, and we need to tie it tighter." Hamilton sat down and started to take off his shoes.

"Hey," Jake said, "just use my other sock." She stuck her other foot out to him.

"No, keep it."

Lightning flashed again, followed even more closely by another explosion of thunder that splintered across the sky in staccato pops like a firecracker.

Will and Bella exchanged a frightened glance. The townie kids knew what this meant – the worst of the storm was almost upon them.

Will acknowledged reluctantly, "We won't make it back to school. We should think about finding some other shelter."

"No!" Hamilton objected. "Sh— he needs a doctor, someone who can stop this bleeding." He looked at Jake, but she didn't seem to notice his near slip-up.

Bella was with Will on this one. "It's not going to help Jake to get even colder and more soaked."

Hamilton finished untying his shoelaces and slid off his sneakers and socks, thankful that the latter were still dry. He looked at Jake. Her sweatshirt was still wet from the spill in the river, and the rain that filtered through the pine needles wasn't helping. Hamilton prayed the rainfall wouldn't get any heavier, but he knew the storm was just beginning.

A gust of wind blew through Jake's hair and she shivered. As Hamilton took her foot in his hand to tie his sock around it, he could feel her shaking.

"It's getting really cold out here," Jake said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Hamilton tied one of his socks tight around the wound and then slipped his other sock over her whole bandaged foot, hoping it might warm her up a bit. There was blood all over his hands now, smeared on the white sock he'd just put on her, but he did his best to ignore the blood and the tremors in his stomach that left him just on the edge of nausea. He squeezed Jake's toes in the tiniest display of affection and then turned to put his shoes back on his sockless feet. As he tied the laces he looked back at Jake, saw that her teeth were chattering, and admitted to himself that Will was right. They needed to find shelter. She needed to dry off, or she would freeze.

"There's an old fire tower just a little further up the hill," Hamilton informed the others reluctantly.

"What's a fire tower?" asked Scout.

"It's like a stone cabin, a lookout where you can see all over the forest. The rangers keep supplies up there."

Scout clapped his hands together. "Sounds good. Let's go."

"I don't know," said Will. "Jake doesn't look like he wants to go much further up this hill."

Hamilton replied, "If we want to get out of this storm, it's the best place." He stood up and held a hand out to Jake, who was slumped back against the tree trunk, listless. She looked like she had no intention of getting up.

"You know, rain isn't so bad," she mused, her voice soft and tired. "I could just hang out here for a while."

"Come on." Hamilton bent down and grabbed her hands. He pulled her to her feet.

"Oh, God... too fast," Jake objected, dizziness making her head loll back. She started to sink again. Hamilton caught her. He took a quick side-glance at Will and Scout, only momentarily self-conscious of what he was about to do.

He whispered in her ear, "I've got you, baby." And with that, he scooped her up in his arms.

Will and Scout couldn't help but exchange a look. Hamilton saw it but no longer cared.

"Ham, don't..." Jake protested, knowing how uncool this looked.

Hamilton ignored her and turned to the gang. "Let's go."

Without another word, they turned and started hiking back up the hill.

END OF PART THREE


	4. The Fire Tower

Title: Summer Storms, Part 4 of 6

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Still not mine.

Author's Notes: Sorry for the delay on this one. Real life intervened. Thanks for the reviews; judging from the feedback, I guess Ch. 3 wasn't too gory after all. Don't worry, the gang will find shelter soon... Or will they?

Chapter 4: The Fire Tower

* * *

As Hamilton cradled Jake in his arms, the last thing either of them wanted was for the others to keep staring at them. So Hamilton let Will, Scout, and Bella walk in front this time, and no one questioned that formation. 

But while Hamilton thought he had solved a problem by carrying Jake, he didn't realize that his girlfriend was desperate to avoid exactly what was happening. Despite the pain and fatigue, she'd been fighting to get through this with her masculine persona intact. And that rendered her as easily embarrassed by a display of weakness as any male teenager would be.

Jake had her arms crossed defiantly over her chest as she complained, "Dude, you're making me look bad."

"Chill. We've got to get inside."

_Chill_, she thought. _Great_. She'd never been more chilled in her life. Cold ached her bones, almost obliterating the pain in her foot.

What Hamilton couldn't see was that in addition to the aching cold, loss of blood was making her tired and cranky. When she looked up at him again, her mood was dark. She watched him for a moment, and when he looked down at her she said, "You must be loving this."

"What?"

"This is what you wanted, isn't it? You the big manly man, me the damsel in distress?"

Hamilton gawked at her in disbelief. Jake saw the shadow pass over his eyes, and she knew that he wanted to come back at her with something much stronger than what he settled on: "Shut up, Jake."

They continued on in silence, rain pelting their faces. Jake looked up at Hamilton and saw him staring straight ahead, his jaw locked in angry determination. Weak as she was, she had enough presence of mind to see how much she had pissed him off, and only then did she realize how mean her comment was.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Hamilton looked down at her and melted instantly. "No, I'm sorry," he replied. He couldn't help himself now; he lifted her up close to his face and kissed her forehead without even considering whether any of the others might turn around and see him. He kept his face close to hers and whispered, "Just relax, OK? Take deep breaths."

"I can't take deep breaths."

"Why not?"

"Because I've got a corset strapped around my chest, remember? It got even tighter when it got wet."

"Dammit, Jake. Why didn't you mention that before?"

"What am I gonna do about it?"

Hamilton stopped walking. He bent down and gently set Jake on the ground.

Up ahead, the others walked on until Bella turned and noticed, and she put a hand on Will and Scout to stop them.

Hamilton shouted to them, "No, you guys go on ahead. We're just gonna rest a minute."

"We'll wait," Scout called back.

"No, go on ahead."

Scout and Will exchanged another glance, but Bella grabbed their hands and pulled them forward. "Come on," she insisted.

Scout reminded her, "Hamilton's the one who knows where this fire tower thing is."

"I know where it is, I think," she replied.

"You _think_?"

Will glanced back at Jake and Hamilton. "We shouldn't leave them."

"They'll be fine," Bella insisted.

"Fine?" Scout repeated incredulously. "Jake's lost like a gallon of blood."

Will shook his head at Bella. "Does anyone remember down by the river when I said that I didn't think it was a good idea for us to split up?"

"Congratulations, Will," Bella retorted. "You were right. But we're not splitting up again, we're just giving them some space."

"Space?"

"Privacy." Bella was having a hard time explaining what she meant. "Guys, I think they want to be alone for a sec."

"Well..." Scout mused, "at least they're finally putting an end to the whole charade."

"What charade?" asked Bella.

"Pretending that they're not gay."

Bella shook her head. "They're not gay."

Scout and Will delivered a simultaneous, "What?"

"I don't know. Never mind. Just come on." Bella called back to Hamilton and Jake, "We'll meet you guys up there." She started walking again, and Will and Scout followed after her.

Hamilton breathed a sigh of relief when the three of them finally disappeared into the trees. He turned back to Jake, who had her hands under her shirt but was so weak and cold she struggled to undo the corset. "Here," Hamilton whispered. He reached under her sweatshirt and T-shirt and felt how icy cold her skin was as she guided his hands to the velcro fastening the corset. He tugged at it. There was a lot of velcro. "Jesus."

"Yeah."

He finally ripped the velcro apart, then pulled the corset out with one hand and left his other on her chest, feeling her ribs expand as her lungs filled with air.

"Can you breathe now?"

"Yeah. Much better."

Hamilton ran his thumb softly over the cup of her bra, and then down her stomach to her waist, where he let his hand rest on her cold, wet skin to warm her. She was shivering so much, and there was nothing he could do.

"You're gonna be fine," he assured her, as if by saying it he could somehow erase the dark shadows that were forming under her eyes.

"Yeah, of course," she replied, with a surprisingly firm voice.

She was so pale it terrified him, the fear gripping his chest even tighter than the cold. He couldn't remember ever having been so scared in his whole life. It was only now that he began to realize that Jake's life was in danger. When he opened his mouth to speak, he didn't even know what words were going to come out.

"I love you, Jake. I love you so much, I..." He wanted to keep telling her, but he had to stop before the emotions overwhelmed him.

She placed a hand on his face as she responded, "I know." But before she could tell him how much the sentiment was mutual, he leaned into her, and the one part of their bodies that was still warm - their mouths - met underneath the drenching rain. There were so many feelings that Hamilton could only express by kissing her, and now they all came pouring out -- fear, love, longing, tenderness. It was all there, almost too much for both of them.

But their kiss lasted only a few seconds, and then Hamilton pulled himself away. He was supposed to be helping her breathe, not suffocating her with his affection. And he knew they couldn't stay there, out in the rain, for long. He could feel Jake quivering, and as soon as he released her mouth, her teeth started chattering again. She was already freezing, and now she was getting soaked again by the downpour. He wondered how much blood she had lost. He didn't know how much she could afford to lose before... He shook his head, not wanting to think about it. The one thing he was pretty sure of was that if he didn't find a way to get her warm, she would go into shock. He had worried that that's where she already was, but her response to his kiss assured him that she was still very much with him.

Jake let go of him and tried to wipe the rain off her face. Her hair was matted to her forehead and down around her eyes, and Hamilton thought to himself that there was no way at that moment anyone could mistake her for anything but a girl. She looked up at him, and for the first time he could hear the pain and fear in her voice as she pleaded, "Can we get inside?"

Hamilton wrapped his arms around her and stood up, lifting her with him and cradling her again.

This time she didn't try to be a boy. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pillowed her head against his chest, holding him as tight as she could. Hamilton bent his head and pressed his cheek against her forehead.

"We're almost there, baby," he whispered.

* * *

Despite the incessant rain, a large crowd was gathered around the two squad cars parked in front of the main building of Rawley Academy. The police officers wore heavy rain jackets, but Kate didn't even have a coat on as she listened anxiously to her husband and the sheriff's deputy discuss what they knew of the situation. 

"We have a pretty good idea of where the boys entered the woods," the deputy explained, "and, assuming that they headed more or less straight for the school, we've pinpointed where to send in the search party. We'll divide up into groups that will radiate outward from there. It won't be easy in the rain, but - "

"I want to go," Kate interrupted. "I want to go with the search party."

"Mrs. Fleming," the deputy began, "I really don't - "

"I want to go, too," said Finn, who stood nearby and tried to hold an umbrella over Kate's head.

As soon as she heard his voice, she turned on him, anger seething in her eyes as she stabbed a finger at him. "You!" she shouted at Finn. "You sent my child out into this!"

Finn was startled, and a wave of guilt washed over him. "Kate, I didn't know about the dam."

"You knew there was a storm coming. You knew that much."

Steven wrapped his arms around his wife and tried to soothe her. "Kate, I'm sure Hamilton's fine. I know you're worried, but don't take it out on Finn." He looked at Finn and said sincerely, "I'm sorry. She doesn't mean it."

"Please, don't apologize," said Finn. And he meant it.

Kate turned to the deputy and said, "I just have to go get my cell phone. I'll be right back."

"I don't want you going out like this," Steven objected. "You're too upset."

"I'll be more upset if I have to sit here thinking about Hamilton lost in the woods in the rain." She pulled away from her husband and rushed off toward their house.

Steven watched her walk away, then turned and said, "Finn, I want you to go with her. Keep an eye on her."

"I don't think she wants my company," Finn replied.

"She's just scared. You know how mothers are. I'd go with her but I need to stay here to keep tabs on the situation. Once word gets out about this, I'm going to have parents calling."

Finn nodded. "Sure, Steven. If that's what you want, I'll take care of her."

"Thank you, Finn. And, um... thanks for not telling her that I was the one who insisted we send the boys out this morning. No sense in rehashing that again."

"Right." And with that, Finn walked off after Kate.

* * *

They had reached a clearing of sorts, and Bella looked all around, as best she could while wiping the rain from her face. 

"Do you see it?" Will asked.

"We're at the top of the hill," she replied. "It shouldn't be hard to spot."

"I thought you said you knew where it was," Scout whined.

"You know, Scout, you're really not helping."

"Maybe we should go back and find Hamilton."

"No... There it is! I see it!" She pointed toward a round, gray, hut-like structure about two stories high, which, in the distance, almost blended completely into the dark gray sky.

"All right!" Scout shouted. "Sorry, Bella. I shouldn't have doubted you."

"It's OK, Scout. Come on." She waved him onward.

The three of them took off running toward the fire tower. They reached the round stone building and climbed the steps to stand under the wide eaves of the pointed roof, safely out of the rain. Will pulled on the steel door. It didn't budge.

"Alright, so we're here," he said. "Does anyone know how we get in?"

"I thought it would be open," said Bella.

"It's not."

Scout tried pulling on the door. "No way."

Bella walked back down the steps and turned to look up at Scout. "Come down here and lift me up."

"Huh?"

She pointed to the giant screened windows that ran all the way around the tower. "The windows are open."

Scout nodded, stepped down next to her, and bent over underneath the window. "Climb up on my back." Bella did and grabbed the windowsill just over her head. She pulled herself up, kicking at the stone wall with her sneakers until she got a foothold and was able to hoist herself up onto the sill. She pushed on the screen.

"Anybody got a knife?" she inquired.

"Nope," Will replied. "We don't usually need them for crew."

Bella didn't miss a beat. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her keys, poking one through the screen and ripping it open.

"Not bad," said Scout.

Bella climbed through the hole in the screen and dropped to her feet on the cement floor. The room was about forty feet in diameter, with a supply closet and a large empty fireplace opposite the door. She went to the door and opened it for Will and Scout, who rushed in and started shaking off. Bella went over to the storage closet and searched the shelves.

"Yes! Blankets!" she cried ecstatically as she pulled them out. But then she frowned. There were only two. She turned back to Scout and Will, who were stripping off their wet clothes.

"Good. We can use those to dry off," Will said. "I'm freezing."

Scout grabbed one of the blankets from Bella and said, "You use that one. We'll use this one."

"No, Scout. We leave one for Jake. The rest of us can share."

As Scout shook out the blanket and started toweling off, there was a pounding on the door. Will, already down to his underwear, ran to it and opened it. Hamilton stepped through the doorway with Jake standing next to him, leaning against him for support.

"You made it," Will greeted them.

Hamilton half-dragged, half-carried Jake into the middle of the room, away from the windows, and laid her gently on the floor. "How come the windows are open?" he demanded.

"The rain's not coming in," said Bella.

"But it's cold in here."

"We've got blankets," Will informed him. "Get out of your clothes and dry off, then we'll see if we can close the windows."

Bella saw Hamilton exchange a look with Jake, who was obviously not pleased by this suggestion.

Scout handed his blanket to Will and stripped down to his boxers, urging them to do the same. "Come on, Jake. You'll feel better once you get out of those wet clothes."

Hamilton took the other blanket from Bella, who tried to make eye contact with Jake to see how she wanted to handle this situation. But before Bella could communicate anything, Scout called to her.

"Come on, Bella. You, too. No one's going to look."

Bella shot Scout a look that told him she totally did not believe him, but she said only, "I just want to see about these windows first." She moved closer to Jake, wanting to help but not knowing what to do.

Jake reached for the blanket Hamilton was holding. "No," he said, pulling it away. "If you wrap up in it while you're still dressed, you'll only get the blanket soaked. That's not going to help any." He knelt down next to her on the cold cement and said softly, "You do need to get out of those clothes."

"I can't," she whispered back. She looked up at Bella, then over at Will and Scout.

"You have to," he insisted. Bella nodded.

Jake shook her head, gazing at Bella and then back at Hamilton. With fierce determination in her fading voice, she replied, "You know I won't."

END OF PART FOUR


	5. Uncovered

Title: Summer Storms, Part 5 of 6

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Still not mine.

Author's Notes: Apologies, but this one was so hard. Fic was so much easier when I didn't know what perspective was. The next chapter should be faster, and should wrap things up, but for now we're not out of the woods yet (hee hee).

**Chapter Five: Uncovered**

* * *

"Jake, please," Hamilton begged.

His gaze was so plaintive that Jake had to look away. Having found shelter had put some of the fight back in her, and she wasn't ready to give up her charade, especially since now more than ever she couldn't bear the thought of losing Hamilton.

She looked at him steadily, or as steadily as she could with the room tilting precariously before her eyes. "If I do this, we lose everything, right now."

"Jake, if we get found out..." Hamilton whispered, casting a glance over his shoulder at Will and Scout. "If we can't go to school together anymore, it's not the end of the world. We'll get through that. But if you don't get warm... Jake..."

Bella crouched next to them and whispered, "Let me help you. I can distract the guys." Hamilton shot her a suspicious glance, and she explained: "_I_ _know_. Jake told me."

Hamilton looked back and forth between the two girls. "When? Why?"

Jake dropped her head, guilty for not having told him. "It's a long story." She looked up again and nodded at Bella. "OK."

Bella stood up and announced, "Alright, guys, I'm gonna take my clothes off, but I want you all to turn around and face the wall."

Scout rolled his eyes. "Bella, come on. This really isn't the time for modesty."

"Please, guys."

Scout sighed. Bella took the other blanket from Will, and the guys both obediently moved toward the windows and faced outside. Hamilton and Jake turned toward the wall as well, and Bella stood watch for them to make sure Scout and Will kept their backs turned.

This was as much privacy as they were going to get, and it wasn't going to last long. Hamilton whispered, "OK. Now!" Jake lifted her arms, and he quickly but gently pulled her sweatshirt up over her head, then the T-shirt, and threw them aside. He reached behind her back to unhook her bra.

"No, don't," she protested.

"Why not?"

"If you put the bra with the other clothes, they'll see it. Dead giveaway." This was the best excuse she could come up with, not wanting to tell Hamilton that this just wasn't the way she imagined her first time being naked with him.

Hamilton didn't like her choice of words, but he opted not to argue with her. "Fine. Unzip," he commanded. She obediently undid her fly and leaned back on her elbows so he could pull off her jeans. They were baggy on her and slid off easily, but Hamilton was careful to go gently over her bandaged foot. He discarded the wet jeans and then took one corner of the blanket and rubbed it over her head, trying to dry her hair.

"Can we turn around yet?" Scout asked.

"Not yet," Bella answered. She stood in her bra and panties, vigorously rubbing her arms and legs with her blanket. She turned to glance at Jake and Hamilton.

Jake pulled her knees up under her chin and sat in a little ball as Hamilton tightly wrapped the blanket around her. "Better?"

"Yeah," she replied. She was silent for a moment, gazing at him, then added, "Thank you."

He smiled for what felt like the first time in days. "Don't mention it."

"What about you?" Jake asked, knowing that he was cold, too.

Hamilton stood up, pulled off his wet shirt and tossed it, then did the same with his sweatpants.

Jake wasn't satisfied. "Don't you want to dry off?"

Hamilton called over his shoulder, "Bella, are there any more blankets?"

"No. Just this one, and it's pretty wet already."

Hamilton smiled at Jake again. "I'll be OK." But as he stood before her in his underwear, the wind whipped through the windows and over his near-naked body, and he shivered.

Bella, modestly covered by her blanket, saw that Jake was safely wrapped up as well. "OK, guys, you can turn around."

Will breathed a sigh of relief and walked over to the storage closet as Scout turned back to Bella with what looked like disappointment on his face. "Are you warming up?" he asked her.

"Yeah, Scout. You want the blanket back?"

He hesitated. "No, you keep it."

"Jake, how are you doing?" Bella asked.

"Better. The pink spots on the wall have stopped moving around."

Hamilton raised his eyebrows. "You're seeing spots?"

"Just little ones."

"Hey, Ham," Will called from the supply closet. "Catch!" He turned to them and tossed a white plastic box to Hamilton. It was a first aid kit.

"Thank God," Hamilton sighed. He opened it up and pulled out bandages and a small bottle of rubbing alcohol. Turning to Jake he said, "OK, let's see that foot again."

Jake's foot recoiled back under the blanket as she laid eyes on the alcohol. "No way," she said. "You're not putting that on me."

"I want to clean it so it doesn't get infected."

"Dude, I'm in enough pain, thank you."

"Jake, come on."

"Hamilton..." she murmured in response, still quivering. "I just want to get warm."

She stared up at him with eyes more needy than Hamilton had ever seen. All her bravado was gone, and she let him see her naked vulnerability. He knew that all she wanted was for him to get inside that blanket with her and warm her with his body. And he wanted to hold her. To comfort her.

He turned to look at Scout and Will, who were watching them.

"You know, you guys feel free to... whatever," Scout offered. "We're cool. Really."

Will concurred. "Totally. Totally cool."

Hamilton contemplated this while he finished wrapping Jake's foot with a gauze bandage. So many times during that trek up the hill he'd wanted to call off the whole charade, to let her stop pretending. But he'd reminded himself that unless her identity remained a secret, he would lose her. Now they'd made it this far, and he had a choice. He could let them know that she was a girl, or he could let them make the obvious assumptions about his sexuality. Either way, he was getting inside that blanket with her.

He looked at Jake. Her beautiful dark eyes searched his face. He turned and looked back at Scout and Will.

And he realized something. He'd never really cared what they thought.

Hamilton nodded to Jake, and she opened up the blanket. He sat down beside her, and her head fell against his bare chest as he wrapped his arms around her. He pulled her legs toward him and over his own, turning her sideways so that she was practically in his lap but keeping the blanket wrapped around them. He quickly rubbed his hands together to warm them up before touching her. And then he put his hands on her almost-naked body and rubbed her arms, her back, her legs, every inch of her bare skin, trying to warm her, trying to get her blood circulating, trying to keep her awake and alert.

Jake moaned contentedly and slid a hand up to his chest, and Hamilton had to remind himself that this was not a time to get aroused. He grabbed her fingers and rubbed those too, squeezing each one and then finally intertwining them with his own.

Across the room, Scout raised his eyebrows at Will and said, "Well, at least _somebody's_ getting warm."

"OK, come on guys," said Bella, taking the hint. She lifted up her arms to invite them into her blanket.

Scout smiled. "So we can't look, but we can snuggle?"

"I can take back this offer at any moment," she warned him.

Scout and Will rushed over to her, one on either side, and the three of them sat down near the fireplace with the blanket stretched around them. But no sooner had they settled down than Will threw back the blanket, jumped up and went over to the hearth. He picked up a book of matches.

"Wait a minute --" he said. "If there's a fireplace, and matches, shouldn't there be wood in here?" He knelt down next to the steel box by the fireplace and opened it. "There it is."

"Thank God," Hamilton said. He squeezed Jake in celebration and whispered, "Now we'll get warm."

"I'm already warm," she whispered back, her head pillowed against his chest.

* * *

Their progress through the woods was slow and cumbersome, what with carrying umbrellas and flashlights and, for Finn, also a pack on his back with blankets and hand warmers and a first aid kit. He finally closed his umbrella and decided that the hood of his rain jacket would do for now. He and Kate had split off from the main search party and now trekked through thick trees toward the next rendezvous point.

At the top of his voice, Finn called out into the relentless storm, "Will...? Scout...?"

"Hamilton...?" called Kate.

"Jake...?" Finn continued.

There was no response but the incessantly thudding deluge of rain and the moan of the wind.

It wasn't exactly a silence, but it was still awkward as they hiked up the hill directing no words at each other. But out of the corner of his eye, Finn could see Kate looking at him, and then her lips moved with words drowned by the rain.

"What?" he asked loudly. "I can't hear you!"

"I'm sorry I snapped at you!" she yelled back at him, the volume of her voice making it hard to recognize as an apology.

"It's OK," he replied simply.

They walked a little farther and again called out the boys' names, but again there was no response. Finn looked at his compass and got his bearings. If they kept heading north, their current path would take them back to the highway that led to the school. Of course, the boys didn't have a compass, and Finn could see how easy it would be to wander off course in these dense woods, even if the rain weren't making it so hard to see.

Trying to be optimistic, Kate stepped closer to Finn so that he could hear her without her yelling. "Maybe they're not lost. Maybe they found shelter, and they're just waiting out the storm."

"That's probably it," Finn replied.

"If only one of them had a phone."

Finn was not about to explain all over again why the principles of rowing dictated that the boys not take anything onto the boat with them. "Even if they did," he replied, "there's probably no reception out here."

Kate checked the bars on her cell phone. Finn was right.

But Finn had a radio that the sheriff's deputy, Ricky, had given him, and just then it crackled to life. "Finn, do you copy?"

Finn lifted the radio to his mouth and tried to shield it from the rain as he replied, "Ricky, this is Finn."

"What's your twenty?" the deputy's voice squawked.

"We're about a half-mile from the highway, going due north."

There was a silence, and then: "Finn, go to a private channel."

Kate turned and stared at him with wide eyes. "No!" she cried. "I want to know what's going on."

Finn shook his head at her and flipped a switch on the radio, so that now Ricky's voice would be heard by him alone. He held the radio up to his ear, knowing that what he was about to hear couldn't possibly be good. "Go ahead."

"When you picked up those boys on the riverbank, they said nobody was hurt in the accident?"

"That's correct. Why?"

"Something must've happened..." The young deputy's voice shook slightly as he tried to put the words together. "We're up here on the main trail, and... There's blood up here, Finn. So much blood the rain couldn't even wash it away. Jesus, it's a lot of blood."

Trying to swallow against the huge lump that had formed in his throat, Finn looked at Kate.

"What?" she begged. "What is it?"

* * *

_Warmth_.

Will managed to get a pretty good fire going, and they were finally getting warm. Hamilton and Jake, still wrapped together, moved over in front of the fireplace to share in the delicious heat. Hamilton was relieved that Jake's skin no longer felt like melting ice, but as she lay nestled in his arms, he realized that they had a new problem. The cold had kept her awake, but now in the cozy heat of the fire she kept dozing off. He didn't know if it was from loss of blood, shock, or just exhaustion, but Hamilton knew the only way to be sure she was OK was to keep her awake.

Bella told him the same thing. "Don't let him go to sleep, Hamilton. I'm not sure why, but I know you have to keep him awake."

Hamilton slapped Jake gently on her cheeks. "Come on, Jake. Stay awake."

"I don't want to," she groaned, squeezing her eyes shut. "It hurts too much."

"It's hurting more?"

"I think my foot got numb from the cold, but now that it's getting warm..."

Hamilton sighed. They couldn't win. He kissed the top of her head as he whispered, "I'm sorry, baby."

He looked up and caught Will staring at them. Will looked away quickly, and Hamilton turned his gaze back down to Jake. Her hair had dried, and it fell in soft wisps around her temples and curled over her forehead. She'd never looked more feminine, even when she'd been all girled up for their date, and he decided that if Will hadn't figured it out by now, he probably never would. But what Will had or hadn't figured out seemed so irrelevant now, as Hamilton held onto his girlfriend and she held on for dear life.

Jake bit her bottom lip and curled tighter into Hamilton's embrace, burying her face in the crook of his arm as if to hide the pain from him. He felt tears sting his eyes, but he fought them down and tried to keep her awake with conversation.

"So," he said. "I wonder if we'll get to skip practice tomorrow."

Jake opened her eyes and looked up at him incredulously. "Oh, my God. That was so lame, Hamilton."

"Hey, I'm trying here. What do you want to talk about?"

She closed her eyes again. "I'm sorry... I can't." She looked so tired. Bluish circles had formed under her eyes, and Hamilton didn't know why. He didn't want to think about it. He couldn't think about it. He couldn't even contemplate that this love he had just found, this beautiful, intelligent, complex person with the most intoxicating laugh he'd ever heard, that she could be slipping away before his very eyes, in his very arms... How did they get here? His mind wandered back over the events of the morning. One stupid decision. Go into the woods. Up the hill. Off the path. All the signs had warned them to turn back. Even Jake had been hesitant, and Jake was never scared of anything. But she'd gone into those woods because she trusted him. And this was where her trust got her.

And as if that didn't make Hamilton feel horrible enough, he also knew that her foot had ended up in that trap because she had pushed him out of the way. Everything that was happening to her should be happening to him.

Trying to shake the dark thoughts out of his head, Hamilton glanced over at the other huddle, and he noticed that Will was now staring at Jake's exposed leg, as if examining it. Hamilton tried to adjust the blanket and cover her up, but he inadvertently pulled it off her shoulder, revealing her bra strap.

"Holy shit..." Will uttered, a little louder than he had intended. Mouth agape, he looked from Jake to Hamilton.

Scout turned his gaze away from the fire that had captivated him and looked over at Jake and Hamilton, but before he could register anything, the fire tower's steel door pushed open behind them, scraping across the cement floor and sending a gust of wind across the room.

They all turned to see someone standing in the doorway.

END OF PART FIVE


	6. Love and Architecture

Title: Summer Storms, Part 6 of 6

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Still not mine.

Author's Notes: This chapter is very long, twice as long as it should be, but I didn't have the heart to cut it in half and keep people waiting. Thanks for all the reviews (**ness** – I find it very funny but also very flattering that you can actually pick out little bits that are new), and I hope this does not disappoint. I have mixed feelings about finishing -- glad to have it done, but sad because it is probably the last YA fic I will write unless I get fired and find myself with a lot of time on my hands. I have a few unfinished tidbits and ideas, and anyone who wants to adopt them and make them your own, just email me.

**Chapter Six: Love and Architecture**

* * *

"I thought I'd find you kids in here," the tall man in the cowboy hat and brown raincoat said as he stepped through the door. "It was smart of you to build that fire. I wouldn't have come up here if I hadn't seen the smoke." 

Hamilton squeezed Jake protectively until he realized who this was.

"I'm Sheriff Grange. You the kids from Rawley Academy?"

"That would be us," Scout replied, relief in his voice. He tossed back the blanket and stood up.

"I got a report that the Dean's son and Senator Calhoun's son were missing. They even sent out a search party for you boys."

Will laughed bitterly. "Nice to know some of us are important enough to rescue."

"And, Bella," the sheriff added, recognizing her instantly, "Your dad's been lookin' everywhere for you. He said he warned you not to go down to the river this morning."

"He did, Sheriff," Bella replied. "I'm so sorry. Is he OK?"

"Oh, he's goin' crazy, but we'll give him a call from the truck. You kids get your clothes on, and we'll get out of here."

Hamilton looked around at all of them, wondering why no one had said what he was thinking. "Um, excuse me, Sheriff? We need to get to a hospital." He pulled back the blanket just enough to reveal Jake's foot wrapped in the blood-soaked bandage.

The sheriff regarded them carefully, with a squint of his eyes in the dim light, then nodded. "Let's go."

Hamilton disentangled himself from Jake and the blanket and threw on his shirt, which hadn't had enough time by the fire to dry and was still thoroughly wet. But his heart was pounding so much he was barely capable of noticing the cold against his skin. They were rescued. Now if Jake could only last until they got to the hospital...

He looked down at her. She was still wrapped in the blanket but no longer sitting up, just curled on her side in a ball on the floor, eyes closed. Hamilton wondered if she even realized they were being rescued. He knelt next to her and wrapped his arms around her, and for the first time when he lifted her, she was incredibly heavy. Fatigue and hunger had set it, and he wasn't sure his arms were strong enough to make this last lap to safety.

"You need some help?" the sheriff asked.

"No, I've got h—" He stopped himself, not even sure anymore which pronoun was right. "I've got it," he sighed between clenched teeth. Jake sank between his arms, and he had to use his knee to push her back up and get his grip, but he was going to carry her out of there if it was the last thing he did.

* * *

She took off running so fast, Finn had a hard time catching up to her. Even the thick tread of his hiking boots slipped on the soaked ground, but it didn't seem to affect Kate at all, and she pushed through branches and wove around trees until she was a tiny blur of yellow rainslicker is the distance. 

"Kate! Wait! You don't even know where you're going!"

He thought he heard her yell something back to him, but whatever it was was lost to the rain. And now through another dense thicket of trees he lost sight of her altogether, and he knew that this was the worst thing that could happen. He couldn't lose her out here in the woods.

"Kate! Stop!" He picked up his pace, no longer concerned at all for his own safety. And lack of concern led him exactly where one could expect, into a header right over a tangle of tree roots. He hit the wet ground with a thud and a sharp pain in his shoulder. He grimaced and rolled over onto his back, and only then did he hear the sound right next to him.

Sobbing.

He found Kate crumpled in a pile only a few feet away, having encountered the same obstacle in her path and met with the same fate.

"Kate!"

He sat up and crawled to her, lifting her by the shoulders until her tear-and-rain-soaked face looked up at him pleadingly as she gasped, "It's my fault."

"What?"

"It's all my fault. God took Hamilton away from me to punish me."

This was so far from what Finn was expecting, he just stared at her, trying to make sense of it. He watched as her eyes closed and she shook with another sob.

"Kate, nothing's your fault. It's my fault. We've established that. All of it, my fault."

She shook her head and mouthed, "No." Her eyes opened but she didn't look at him. She looked past him, her eyes darting around, endlessly searching, as if her son might appear magically in the trees.

Finn pulled Kate to her feet. "Listen to me. It's my fault," he reiterated. "I know it now. And to prove it to you, you know what I've been doing for the last ten minutes? Writing my resignation speech in my head. You want to hear it? 'Dear Dean Fleming and Esteemed Members of the Board—'"

"Stop!" Kate screamed. She pulled away from him and started walking again. "We have to keep moving."

"We're going to find them, Kate. I swear to you, we will. And when we do, Hamilton will be fine."

Kate froze in her tracks right in front of him, but she didn't turn around. He reached out for her arm.

"Listen to me, Kate. I get it now. I get what's important to you, and I'm ready to back off." He waited for her to turn and look at him, but she continued to stare through the trees as if transfixed. He continued, "I'll let you go. I get it."

"It's Steven!" she cried.

Finn thought this was a reply, and it cut like a knife to his heart, until he realized that she had spotted something ahead of them. She broke into a run again, slipping her arm from his grasp before he could process what was happening. He took off after her, and suddenly they were free of the trees and were crossing a meadow that swept uphill to the road.

Flashing orange lights on the Emergency Services truck told him that they had reached the rendezvous point. And there by the truck was parked Steven's Mercedes. The Dean stood beneath a black umbrella, which he tossed aside as he saw his wife come running toward him. He wrapped her up as she threw herself into his arms.

Finn slowed his pace now, giving them their moment. He heard Kate ask, "What are you doing here? I thought you had to stay at school."

"I had to come out, make sure you're OK."

"Something's wrong. Something happened..."

"No, honey..." Steven kissed her head softly. "They found the boys. They're OK."

Kate nearly collapsed into her husband's arms. "Oh, thank God. Thank God. Where are they?"

"They're at the hospital. One of them was hurt, but it didn't sound bad."

"Was it Hamilton?"

"The sheriff didn't say, but I don't think it was."

"I have to get to the hospital."

"I know. You and Finn can take my car, and the deputy will give me a ride back to campus."

"Come with me," she begged.

"I can't. But you bring our boy home, and we're going to have a nice, warm family dinner tonight."

Kate nodded, tears still running down her face. She grasped her husband's hands and said, "I love you."

"I love you, too."

* * *

The storm had reached full force, and torrents of water splashed the windows and windshield of the sheriff's Bronco as they sped toward the hospital. Jake, still wearing only her underwear and a blanket, lay in Hamilton's lap in the front seat. 

Hamilton punched several buttons on the dashboard. "Why isn't there any heat coming out?" he demanded.

"Lay off there, son," replied the sheriff patiently. "It takes a minute to warm up."

Hamilton looked down at Jake and decided maybe he shouldn't turn the heat on after all. He had hoped that going back out into the cold wind and rain would wake her up, but he saw her eyes drift closed again. "Jake, don't go to sleep." When she didn't respond, he gently slapped her cheek again, then grabbed her chin and shook her head.

"Hamilton..." she moaned softly.

"Come on, baby. Stay with me."

Sheriff Grange looked down at Jake, then at Hamilton and said, "Don't worry. The little lady will be just fine."

It took a moment for Hamilton to realize what was wrong with that comment. He looked at the sheriff and opened his mouth to say something, but he didn't know what to say. Instead, he looked in the rearview mirror, where he met Will's eyes. And then he decided to keep his mouth shut for the rest of the trip.

Even with the lights flashing, and the siren blaring when they reached an intersection, it still seemed to take forever to reach the hospital. But finally the Bronco pulled up in front of the emergency room entrance, and Sheriff Grange jumped out and came around to open the passenger-side door. He scooped Jake up from Hamilton's lap. Jake didn't like this and wouldn't let go of Hamilton's hand.

"Wait, let me take her," Hamilton begged.

"I got her," the sheriff replied, striding away and pulling Jake's hand away with him.

They passed though the automatic double doors and into the hospital with Bella, Will, and Scout right behind them. A nurse came up to meet them.

"Hey, Sheriff," the nurse greeted him cheerfully.

"Hey, Janeane. This is the one I called in. Got her foot caught in a trap."

The nurse pulled up a wheelchair and said to Jake, "Here, honey, have a seat." She then laughed to the sheriff, "I didn't even know prep school kids were in season."

The sheriff set Jake down in the wheelchair. The bright fluorescent lights of the corridor finally brought her back to total consciousness, and she looked around for Hamilton. He stepped up beside her and took her hand.

"Jake, listen to me," he whispered. "They know you're a girl."

"They have to know, Hamilton. It's a hospital. They've all studied anatomy."

"What do I do?"

Jake looked up at Will and Scout, then back to Hamilton. "Damage control."

The nurse wheeled Jake into the emergency room, and Hamilton tried to follow.

"You kids wait out here," the nurse ordered.

"No, I want to stay with - "

"Waiting room," she barked.

"But... I'm his-- her -- brother."

The nurse eyed Hamilton, then Jake. They did kind of look alike.

"OK. If you're family."

Hamilton followed them into the emergency room and over to a row of gurneys separated by curtains. Another nurse and an orderly lifted Jake out of her blanket and laid her onto a gurney. Jake rubbed her arms, obviously very cold again. She lay there in her bra and underwear as Nurse Janeane started unwrapping her foot and the other nurse wrapped a blood pressure cuff around her upper arm. Hamilton stood grasping the metal frame at the end of the gurney. He tried to keep eye contact with Jake the entire time.

A doctor walked in. He immediately noticed Hamilton at the end of the bed and stopped. "Hamilton!"

Hamilton turned, and his stomach sank. He mumbled under his breath, "Oh, God," and then said aloud, "Hi, Doctor Savaar."

"What are you doing here?" the doctor asked. "Are you OK?"

"We got caught in the storm..."

"So, you know this kid?" Nurse Janeane asked the doctor.

"This is Hamilton Fleming. His father is the Dean of Rawley Academy."

"Well, aren't we honored?" she commented. "And this is the dean's daughter?"

Doctor Savaar looked at Jake, then back at Hamilton. "You don't have a sister, do you?"

Hamilton glared at the nurse, who cocked her head toward the door. He looked back at Jake, blew her a kiss, and said, "I'm going to go wait outside." Jake gave him a weak smile that told him she appreciated the effort.

Hamilton ran his hands over his head and searched his brain for what to say as he walked back out to the waiting room and found Scout, Will, and Bella all looking at him expectantly. "Guys, listen..." he began.

He was interrupted by a female voice crying, "Hamilton!" He spun around to see his mother come rushing into the waiting room, followed by Finn.

"Mom?!"

Kate ran to him and grabbed him in a suffocating hug. "Oh, Munchie, thank God you're OK!" For several seconds she stood squeezing him, and the small part of him that wasn't mortified actually found comfort in her arms. He realized he was hugging her back. When he finally grew too self-conscious to keep holding on, he extricated himself from his mother's embrace and was surprised to see tears running down her face. With a pang of guilt, he realized how worried she must have been. Here was one more person who suffered because of his stupid decisions. Hamilton looked over his mother's shoulder at Finn, who awkwardly looked away, his face contorted with a strangely-pained look of his own.

His mother cupped his face with her hands and asked, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," he replied. "What are you doing here?"

Finn answered for her. "The police said they found you guys and took you to the hospital."

Kate shook her head as if the very memory of it stung. "I didn't know what to think."

"Where's Jake?" asked Finn.

Will answered, "He hurt his foot. The doctor's looking at him right now."

"I'll go see how he's doing." Finn started toward the emergency room.

"No, don't!" Hamilton called after him.

Finn stopped. "Why not?"

"They said he's fine, but they don't want anyone in there."

Kate frowned. "But I want to know that he's OK when I call his parents. No use in worrying them more than necessary."

"Whoa. Why do you have to call his parents?"

"I think they'd want to know that their son is in the hospital."

"But it's nothing - it's just a scratch," Hamilton insisted. "And Jake doesn't have a dad, and his mother's touring a stage play in Europe so she's, like, impossible to get a hold of anyway."

"I have to let her know, Hamilton. It's school policy."

"Ham, relax," said Finn. "It's not like you guys are in trouble."

"Maybe I could call his mother," Hamilton suggested. "We hung out a lot Parents' Weekend, so I know her pretty well."

Kate shook her head. "Right now I just want to get you home, sweetie."

"No, I want to stay, wait for Jake."

"You're soaking wet, you're cold..."

Scout piped up. "Mrs. Fleming, they said they'd get us some dry clothes."

Kate turned to him as if seeing him for the first time. "Oh, hello, Scout. I'm sorry, I barely noticed you. Hi, Will."

"Hi, Mrs. Fleming," Will replied.

"And this is Bella," Scout added, bowing his hand before her in introduction.

"Nice to meet you, Bella." Kate turned back to her son. "Hamilton, I'm not leaving you here."

"Please, Mom. I feel totally responsible for this. The shortcut through the woods was my idea."

"Mrs. Fleming, my dad's coming to get me in a little bit," Bella offered. "We can give these guys a ride back to school."

Kate considered this. Hamilton saw an opportunity and turned on his best puppy dog eyes. "Please?"

Kate thought for a moment and then asked, "Have you eaten?"

"Mom..." he groaned.

"Here, let me give you some money." She opened her purse and pulled out several bills and coins.

"So that means I can stay?" Hamilton asked hopefully.

"Yes. You're so sweet to want to make sure that Jake's all right. Get a ride back with your friends, or you can wait until the hospital calls us to come pick Jake up. But in the meantime, I _am_ calling his mother."

Hamilton nodded. He didn't know what else to say.

Finn turned to Scout and Will. "You guys check in with me when you get back, and then get some rest. Tomorrow we're going to talk about what happened."

Kate gave Hamilton one more hug and a kiss, and he tried not to reveal how desperate he was to have her gone. Then she finally and reluctantly left with Finn.

Hamilton watched them go and then stood awkwardly for a moment in the silent waiting room before looking at Will, Scout, and Bella. He grabbed the top of his head with one hand and began, "I know this all looks really weird..."

With a glance at Bella, Scout replied, "Lucky for you, we have a high threshold for weird."

"We figured out that Jake's a girl," said Will. "Figured it out before the sheriff showed up."

"Bella knew right away," Scout added.

Bella shrugged. "Takes one to know one, I guess."

"But what we're not clear on is why she's doing this," Scout said.

Hamilton sighed. "It's a long story. All I can say is she... came out... to me a month ago, and we've been together ever since. And now she has to keep up the charade because if the school finds out she's been lying, she's in violation of the honor code and God knows what else, and they'll kick her out. And I'm really not ready for that to happen."

"Don't worry, man," Will assured him. "We won't say a word."

Hamilton shook his head. "It's probably too late anyway. Once my mom calls her mom..."

Will looked at Scout, then Bella. None of them knew what to say.

"I'm sorry," was all Will could offer.

"My dad should be here soon," Bella said. "How long do you think it will be until you get to see Jake?"

"I don't know, but I'm gonna wait. I'll get a taxi back."

"We can stay, wait with you," Scout volunteered.

"No, I'll be OK." Hamilton looked away, wanting to be alone with his brooding.

Scout reached out and tapped his arm. "I'm sure he's -- she's -- Jake's -- going to be fine."

"Yeah." Hamilton held up the money his mother gave him. "You guys want anything?"

They all declined, and Hamilton left them and walked over to a vending machine that had a picture of hot chocolate on it that reminded him how desperately he wanted to get warm. He was shaking so much he had to steady his hand to slip the coins into the slot. And the shaking wasn't just from cold. His whole body ached with tension, and the ordeal wasn't over yet. They had been rescued, but he might still lose Jake after all...

* * *

The rain had let up slightly as Bella waited with Will and Scout for her father to arrive. Her heart broke at what Jake and Hamilton were going through, so much so that the sadness overwhelmed the worry she felt over what Charlie was going to say when he showed up. 

The boys were still talking about the big revelation, a subject they'd probably get much mileage out of over the weeks and months to come.

Scout remarked, "Wow. He must be really crazy about her."

"It's kinda sweet, in a freaky way," said Will. "I mean, I thought I was a romantic, but I couldn't imagine letting everyone think I was gay just so I could be with some girl."

"I guess you've never been in love," said Scout.

"I guess not."

"It overcomes a lot of obstacles," Scout added pointedly.

Bella knew this was directed at her. She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Scout, do you still not get it? This is more than a social stigma with us. There's no overcoming here. And there never will be."

Before Scout could respond to this outburst, Bella saw Charlie's truck pull up. "Let's go," she snapped. She pushed open the glass door and headed back out into the rain, silently praying that _someone_ would be able to pull a happy ending out of this day.

* * *

How long had he been sitting there? An hour? Two? Hamilton couldn't remember anymore. A nurse had given him some dry clothes to change into, and now, dressed in a white T-shirt and blue scrub pants, he sat in the waiting room reading a magazine. _Architectural Digest_. He was way too stressed to actually read, so he just thumbed through the glossy pictures, trying to find anything that would take his mind off of Jake. His eyes settled on a photo spread of a palazzo in Florence. Sun glinted off the warm hues of the arched doors and ornate pediments. He recalled his trip to Italy with his parents years ago, and also remembered a very similar picture in the first architecture book his mother gave him. But eventually what formed in his mind was the deepest wish to share those Florentine arches with Jake, to hold her hand as they strolled past that palazzo in the warm sunlight, to photograph her in front of that fountain... 

"Hamilton?"

Doctor Savaar's deep voice startled Hamilton back to reality. He stood up.

"Doctor Savaar, how's she doing?"

"She's fine. She made me promise I'd come out here and tell you that personally. She does have a few bruised bones in her foot and some torn fascia, but nothing broken. We're going to keep her here over night, make sure her foot doesn't get infected, but she should be able to go home tomorrow."

Hamilton exhaled deeply. "Thank you. I was really... She lost so much blood, and it was so cold..."

"She held up remarkably well considering. We gave her a transfusion of plasma and she perked right up. She's a spunky girl."

"Yeah. You've no idea."

The doctor smiled at this. "So... We've established that she's not your sister...?"

"No, she's my girlfriend." _Wow_. Hamilton savored that moment. It felt so good to say the word, to acknowledge it. _Girlfriend_. "But my parents don't really know, so maybe if you could - I mean, I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention..."

"Don't worry, Hamilton. We follow strict rules of confidentiality to protect our patient's privacy."

"Thanks. So, can I see her?"

"No, I'm afraid not. We gave her something to help her sleep. I'm sorry, but you'll probably have to come back tomorrow."

Hamilton's heart sank. "Can I just peek in on her? I just want to see with my own eyes that she's OK."

"I really shouldn't let you do that."

Hamilton sighed. He was tired. He didn't know if he could muster another puppy-dog face. He wasn't even sure if it could work on a guy. But he'd be damned if he wasn't going to try.

"Doctor Savaar... Please?"

* * *

Hamilton stepped out of the fluorescent light of the hallway and into the darkened hospital room. Once his eyes had adjusted he could make out Jake's still form curled in the bed. He closed the door behind him and tiptoed over to her. 

Jake was sound asleep. The fading light from the gray sky outside the window cast the entire room in a faint glow, but it was light enough to see that the color had returned to her cheeks. Her hair fell softly in wisps around her closed eyes and dark lashes, and Hamilton thought she looked even more beautiful than he had ever seen her. He reached out and lightly ran his fingers over her cheek and along the line of her jaw. He felt her arm that lay on top of the blanket. She was warm - but not warm enough, he said to himself. He ran his fingers down her arm to her hand.

And that was when he found the piece of paper. It was underneath Jake's fingers, as if she had been clutching it when she fell asleep. Hamilton slid it out from her hand and noticed that it was a sheet from the pad of paper next to the bed. He could see her handwriting on it, but it was in pencil, and he had to go over to the window to read it. The first thing he saw was his name.

_Hamilton,_

_If you find your way in here, please  
please please please please wake me up!_

_-Jake_

A wave of love washed over him. She wanted to see him as badly as he wanted to see her. He walked back over to the bed. He knew he wasn't supposed to wake her. But he didn't care.

"Jake," he whispered. He bent over her and shook her shoulder. She was really knocked out. "Jake!" he said louder.

Her eyelids slowly lifted as if she were struggling to come to life.

"Hey baby," Hamilton said, taking her hand and placing soft kisses on her fingers.

She looked up at him, and as soon as her eyes could focus on his face, she grinned.

"Hamilton!" she cried. As he leaned down to kiss her, she sat up and wrapped her arms around him, and they met halfway in a tight embrace.

"Careful!" he said, grabbing her arm that had an IV line running into it. "Don't hurt yourself." He sat down facing her on the bed and propped up her pillows so that she could lean back.

She laid her hand on his thigh, noticing the scrub pants. "Nice outfit."

"Ditto," he replied, checking out her hospital gown. "So is it true you don't wear anything underneath that?"

She just smiled a loving but drowsy smile.

Hamilton looked around and commented, "You always manage to get a single room."

"I like my privacy."

He looked at her carefully and asked, "How are you feeling?"

"They gave me some great painkillers, but then they made me take something to make me sleep and that really pissed me off but they wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. I swore to them that they're going to hear from my mother's lawyer about this." She paused. "I just wanted to see you." She reached out her fingers and touched his lips as a smile curved her own. "And now you're here."

"I'm here." He kissed her fingers. "What about your foot?"

"Twenty-two stitches." Her eyes scanned his face. She could read him like a book and saw the deeper worry that he was trying to hide. "What else is the matter? Will and Scout...?"

"No, Will and Scout are cool. It's just... my parents. They don't know you're a girl, but..."

"What?"

He knew he had to tell her. "My mom's gonna call your mother. I tried to talk her out of it."

"Hamilton, is that what you're so worried about? You think I'd have lasted this long if I didn't know how to dial into my mom's voice mail and erase messages?" Jake gazed at him for a moment, then grinned.

Hamilton exhaled a huge sigh of relief, which made her grin even wider, until she remembered to add, "But tomorrow I need you to bring me my laptop. I may need to hack into the hospital's database and fix my medical records before they call the school. They gave me a hard time when I kept telling them my name was Jake."

Hamilton nodded. "First thing in the morning."

Jake's smile slowly faded. She looked down and bit her lip. "Listen, Hamilton... There are some things that I said that I want to apologize for."

"No, come on, Jake -"

"No, really, I never should've suggested that you got off on me bleeding to death."

"Jake, don't apologize. It was my fault we ended up in those stupid woods."

"But it was my fault we lost the boat."

Hamilton just smiled. "See? We make a great couple."

Jake closed her eyes and exhaled.

Hamilton could tell she was really drowsy. "Hey, I should get out of here so you can go back to sleep."

"I didn't want to sleep because you weren't here." She looked up at him earnestly. "Hamilton... just for a minute..."

She scooted over and pulled back the covers. Without another word Hamilton climbed in bed with her, sliding one arm around her and placing his other hand on her face, and they lay back against the pillows together. Hamilton's fingers on Jake's back found their way underneath her hospital gown to caress her skin. He kissed her, gently pulling her upper lip between his own moist lips. She slid a hand around his neck as her jaw relaxed and her mouth opened up to him.

But just as his tongue reached the tip of her teeth, Hamilton jerked his head away. He squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face in her shoulder. He pulled her toward him with both arms more forcefully than he ever had before, no longer trying to be gentle, just squeezing her with everything he had. A small moan was trapped in his throat, and Jake knew he was trying not to let it escape as a sob.

She held him right back, then put a hand on his head and ran her fingers through his hair.

She whispered, "I know, Hamilton. I love you, too."

THE END


End file.
